The movie was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and was released in the United Kingdom and Italy on May 18, 2011, in Australia and Turkey on May 19, 2011, and in the United States and Canada on May 20, 2011. The release was presented in Disney Digital 3-D and IMAX 3D, as well as in traditional two-dimensional and IMAX formats. The film was first announced in 2008 and principal photography started in June 2010. The release was the first in the series to be directed by Rob Marshall and not Gore Verbinski. It was also the first movie in the series which featured fictional versions of historical characters such as Blackbeard, George II of Great Britain, Henry Pelham, John Carteret and Ferdinand VI of Spain. It was the first Pirates of the Caribbean film to be released in 3D and Jerry Bruckheimer's second 3D film, following the 2009 movie G-Force. It was also the fifth Disney film to use Dolby 7.1 surround sound. While previous films in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise have been filmed in the Caribbean Sea, On Stranger Tides was filmed mainly in Hawaii.
Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) travels to London to locate a person who has been impersonating him. The impostor has been recruiting a crew to search for the legendary Fountain of Youth. First Sparrow rescues his former first mate, Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally), who is about to be hanged, though the two are captured. Jack is brought before King George II (Richard Griffiths), who wants him to guide an expedition to the Fountain of Youth before the Spanish find it. Heading the expedition is Jack's old nemesis, Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), now a privateer after losing Jack's ship, the Black Pearl, and his leg.
Jack escapes, and is found by his father, Captain Teague (Keith Richards), who warns Jack about the Fountain's tests. Jack then discovers that the impostor is Angelica (Penélope Cruz), his former lover and daughter of the ruthless pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane). Blackbeard forces Jack to join his crew and lead them to the Fountain to circumvent a prophecy that a one-legged man will kill Blackbeard. Meanwhile, Gibbs, who memorized, then destroyed Sparrow's map, joins Barbossa's crew in order to beat Blackbeard and the Spanish to the Fountain.
Aboard Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, Angelica reveals that the Fountain's water must be drunk from chalices once belonging to Juan Ponce de León, and that one chalice must contain a mermaid's tear. Whoever drinks the Fountain's water with the tear will absorb the previous and remaining years of the person drinking from the second cup. Knowing this, Blackbeard heads to Whitecap Bay, where he traps a mermaid that a captive missionary Philip Swift (Sam Claflin) later names Syrena (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey). Blackbeard then sends Sparrow to steal the chalices from de León's grounded ship. Sparrow arrives finding only Barbossa: the Spanish have already taken the chalices.
Barbossa admits he only wants to kill Blackbeard for capturing the Black Pearl and causing him to amputate his own leg. He and Jack devise a plan to defeat Blackbeard; they then steal the chalices from the Spanish camp nearby. Meanwhile, Blackbeard tricks Syrena, who has fallen in love with Philip, to shed a tear, which he collects then leaves her to die while forcing Philip to go with him. Sparrow returns with the chalices and Gibbs, who he had reunited with while helping Barbossa. Jack blackmails Blackbeard to let Gibbs go in exchange for giving him the chalices and leading them to the Fountain. Blackbeard accepts Jack's terms and Jack continues to lead them, while he gives Gibbs leave to go, who leaves with Jack's compass.
At the Fountain, Blackbeard and his crew are attacked by Barbossa and the Spanish, who have been sent by the king to destroy the Fountain, believing it an abomination against God. Barbossa stabs Blackbeard with a sword laced with poison, but Angelica is also wounded by it. Barbossa then steals Blackbeard's sword, which allows him to telepathically control the Queen Anne's Revenge, and escapes alongside Blackbeard's former crew. Philip, mortally wounded, escapes and returns to Syrena and frees her. After finding the chalices and giving them to Sparrow, Syrena returns and takes the dying Phillip underwater to heal him.
Sparrow tricks Blackbeard into drinking from the wrong cup while Angelica drinks from the other, killing Blackbeard and saving Angelica. However, suspecting she may try to avenge her father's death, Sparrow strands her on an island, intending for a passing ship to find her. After much bantering they both declare their love for each other, but Jack still leaves her on the island knowing she is untrustworthy. He leaves her with a pistol with one shot, which she uses to fire at Jack, though she misses. Jack then meets up with Gibbs, who had used Sparrow's compass to find and take the shrunken Black Pearl, before Barbossa sets sail on the Revenge. They set off, hoping to return the Pearl to its original size.
In a post-credits scene, Blackbeard's voodoo doll of Sparrow has washed ashore on the island that Angelica was left on, where she finds it.
